The Beginning of Infinity aka An Infinate Headache
by Nu-Klear
Summary: A creative choice in costumes is about to make the Scoobies' lives a whole lot more complicated...
1. Chapter 1

Title: The Beginning of Infinity aka An Infinate headache

by: Nu-Klear

Feedback: Oh Hell Yes! Please! Feedback is the coin of the realm and My muse is starving here people!

Disclaimer: all characters owned by their respective owners.

A/N: I have no idea where this plot bunny came from but once it popped up my muse refused to let it go  
until I wrote this... well, I hope at least some of you enjoy it at at least.

**XXXXXXXXX**

Xander frowned in concentration as he carefully placed the finishing touch on the last part of his costume. Once he was sure the glue was set, the young man leaned back to study his handy work, smiling at what he saw he began to gather the pieces of clothing and bits that he had cannibalized from the costumes of years past.

Xander picked up a jar of face paint he had picked up at the costume shop, while Buffy was drooling over a ball dress, undoubtedly plotting with Willow how she was going to seduce a certain walking corpse, moved into the bathroom and began smearing it over his entire face; a few minutes of using the mirror later and his face was a even gold color. Looking over the rest of his costume, a quick adjustment to his gold wig and Xander grinned as he saw how it well it had turned out. "Perfect! The two dollar costume king continues his rule..."

**XXXXXXXXX**

Janus smiled as he heard one of his few remaining worshippers petitioning him, ignoring the mortal accessing his power as insignificant given the amount of power the god had. Janus was not about to deny his priest the infinitesimal sliver of power he would need to cause the very chaos that sustained him.

An instant later Janus cried out in something like pain as for a split second all of his power was being forcibly ripped from his body. The drain cut off as quickly as it had begun; the weakened God fell to his knees even as his powers quickly returned to him, fighting to focus enough to find out what had just happened.

"You are the cause of my appearance in this place."

Janus looked up, frowning in annoyance at the unknown being standing before him; he knew that whoever or whatever it was, it was no god. He had had the misfortune of meeting most of the gods and goddesses that remained in this plane of existence. Therefore this being had no business in his presence, let alone standing over him glaring down at him so insolently, without his express summons. "How dare you enter the realm of Janus! Be gone Mortal, or face my wrath!"

"You will tell me your reason for bring me to this dimension…" the gold skinned man glared at the god as if Janus was the mortal and he was the god, "and it had better be a good reason or I will not be pleased!"

Janus stared at the being, his rage building by the second as the golden skinned man glared back at him impassively, his red cape still draped around him as if to say he didn't even feel the need to be prepared to try and defend himself from the god. Janus snarled and flung his hand out unleashing a wave of power at the insolent mortal.

The god stared disbelieving as the mortal slightly raised one arm revealing a gauntlet-encased hand and the energy dissipated before hitting its target, leaving the mortal standing there glaring at the god without so much as having one of his hairs knock out of place. "Who… What are you!"

"I am called Adam Warlock…" Adam slowly raised his hand, clenching it into a fist as it came level with his face allowing the god to get a good look at each of the six gems mounted on it, one on each of knuckles with the final one set in the center of the back of the hand as power began to dance across the glove's surface. "And I am not pleased!"

**XXXXXXXXX**

_Well it's nice to have my skin back to normal at least…_ Xander stood on the roof of the school staring out over the town with a lost expression still wearing his costume, his gold skin once again just face paint, but that was the only thing looking up for the young man at the moment. Raising his right hand, Xander stared at the still very real Infinity Gauntlet and Gems with an expression that managed to be both horrified and fascinated at the same time.

Xander's fascination came from the fact that he could see actually see the process that had created the Gems in his mind's eye. How the spell using Janus' power had provided the spark which had been all the forces that the Gems needed to act as the catalyst for the transformation of a gold painted plastic cuff into an ornate gauntlet of pure gold, and some plastic gems into artifacts capable of making someone more powerful than even the gods could imagine. And now, with the spell having ended, said forces empowering the gems were keeping the Infinity Gauntlet exactly as it was.

His horror came from what he could see and feel happening around him due to his recently acquired omnipotence; he was well aware of the balance shifting around him. His mastery of the aspects of the universe that the time, space, power, soul, mind and reality gems gave him allowed him to see what was coming and the infinite possible outcomes of each action he could take.

His first instinct had been to try and find the Living Tribunal and have the being render these gems incapable of working together, making the Infinity Gems far from harmless but no longer able to make a person all powerful like the being had in the comic books. However Xander could find no trace of this extremely powerful being; a fact that nearly made him lose control of his bowels as that meant there was nobody in this universe, at least that he knew of, capable of stopping him or anyone else using the Gauntlet.

His next thought was to destroy the gems but he faced the little problem of the gems being indestructible. And after a little thought on the matter, even if they weren't indestructible they happened to be physical manifestations of aspects of the universe, so it might not be such a good idea to destroy them.

If he hid the gauntlet someone would eventually find it and, whether they meant to or not, use it; the futures springing from that possibility kept leading to really, really bad things. He briefly thought of giving it to Giles to have it locked away for the rest of time, but a quick look at that possible future had required him to un-destroy the Watchers Council's headquarter, not to mention most of its members, and rewrite the memories of the ones he hadn't blinked out of existence to cover the whole mess up. It may have only taken a single thought but it was still a pain in the ass.

He could leave, use the Gauntlet to go anywhere on this or any other world he wanted… heck, any world in any universe he wanted. But the pendulum effect had already begun; something big was coming due to this and while, with his new powers, he should be able to handle it he knew his friends would never let him handle it alone. Even with the Gauntlet they would feel they had to protect him as they never even tried to see past the masks he put on for them.

He really wished he could talk to his friends about this, but even without using the Gauntlet he knew how that would go. Buffy would demand he give the Gauntlet to her as she was the Slayer and he would just hurt himself, all powerful Buffy equals Badness to end all badness; Giles would claim that it was too powerful for any one person to have, a fact Xander happened to agree with, and want him to hand it over to the Watchers Council for safe keeping, again bad idea. Willow would want him to let her study the Gauntlet and its powers; a few hours ago he wouldn't have even thought twice of letting the girl who had been his best friend since forever do so. Now, given some of what he had become aware of thanks to the Gauntlet, giving her an item that grants a person omnipotence was not something he was likely to do… ever!

Xander had no wish to spend the rest of his life married to someone he saw as a sister, or worshiping her as a goddess for that matter. It might break her heart but she would just have to accept that he would never see her the way she wanted him to. _I may have asked Willow to help me develop my romancing skills for when Buffy came back from summer vacation, but I was very clear to her that was all we were doing! And when this is over one way or another Wills and I are going to have a long discussion on the real reasons I haven't been able to get so much as a date with any of the girls in this school. I'm a freaking person; you can't just stake a claim on me like I'm the only chocolate sprinkle doughnut in the pack. I have a choice in the matter, and running off every other girl that shows interest in me so I don't appear to have any choice but you only makes it worse!_

Xander quickly cooled his anger, doing a quick mental check to insure he hadn't accidentally done anything to harm his sister in all but blood, shook his head and moved himself from the roof to the library with a thought.

_I'll talk this over with Giles, he's an expert on supernatural stuff. Although I don't know if this qualifies as supernatural, but if worse comes to worse I can always erase his memory of it but I need to talk this over with someone and while most after school specials show guys going to their father for advice in big decisions, my pop would probably try and take me out so he could sell it for booze money. So Giles is the closest thing I have to someone like that…_ Xander thought as he walked over and sat down at the table in the center of the room to wait for Giles to return from his fruitless search for Raines.

Reminded of the mage Xander smiled nastily, at what he imagined was happening to the mage about now.

**XXXXXXXXX**

Raines slowly lifted himself from the prone position Ripper's beating had left him in, forcing himself into a position of supplication at the feet of the being that had snatched him to safety while his old friend had been busy with the statue. After all it never paid to anger someone that had just saved your ass, especially if they happen to be a God. "Janus, my all powerful master, your ever faithful degenerate son thanks you for interceding on his behalf... Bloody hell, what happened to you!"

Janus stood before his servant in clothing that looked to be little more than burned and dirty rags, both faces bruised, lips split, three of his four eyes swollen shut and one of his noses was bent at a funny angle. In short it looked like Janus had been on the losing end of one hell of a barroom brawl, although he did look in better shape than any of the guys in the last one he had seen Ripper start.

The God's one good eye, though blackened, still opened enough for the mage to see the rage burning within it as something unseen grabbed him and yanked him to his feet by the lapels of his shirt. "That, oh faithful degenerate son of mine, would be what I have summoned you here to discuss…"

Raines swallowed hard, wishing he was back under Ripper's 'tender mercies' as he felt his bladder control start to waver and muttered what he hoped wouldn't wind up being his last words. "Oh, bugger me!"


	2. It just keeps getting worse

Giles was still muttering obscenities over Ethan's inexplicable escape as he entered the school and made his way toward the library. The watcher was halfway to his destination when he froze as something finally resister to his conscious mind; although atrophied from long disuse, the mystic energies that ran rampant throughout Sunnydale had always been like an almost constant buzz of power to his mage trained senses… now however there was nothing, a void that he realized he had began to feel sometime ago but he had been too distracted to notice.

Cursing under his breath Giles started for the library again, although he had picked up his pace to just short of a trot as his eyes searched the shadows and other possible hiding places for signs of trouble. To the Watcher's knowledge there were only two reasons for a void such as this, the most preferable being a concealment spell. True, to get an effect such as this, let alone over such a large area, would require a mage with an obscene amount of power, but it was still better than having a being powerful enough to put off an aura strong enough cause his subconscious to shut down those senses to protect them.

Finally reaching the library, Giles froze staring at what he saw inside. Xander was sitting cross-legged on the main table slowly but steadily paging his way through a thick tome, while all around him books and tomes were floating through the air like balloons. As the Watcher stood there Xander finished the tome he had which flew off into the stacks at a high rate of speed as the young man grabbed another out of the air seemingly at random and began paging through it with the same determination as before.

However shocking those sights were, the thing that left Giles staring speechlessly into the library was the sight of Xander still wearing what Giles assumed to be his Halloween costume sitting in one of the chairs at the table apparently dozing peacefully. The sight of another of his precious books rocketing into the stacks like the preverbal bat out of hell knocked the Watcher back to his senses. "What's going on here?!"

"I am learning…" The Xander on the table said quietly without looking away from the tome it was going through, as the sleeping Xander snorted and squirmed in the chair, not waking but clearly disturbed by the Watchers' demand for information. "And I believe, Giles that you are aware that you shouldn't shout in libraries."

Giles blinked at the young man sitting on the table, a lump forming in the pit of his stomach at the detached tone in the young man's voice. "Who are you?"

"I'm Xander…" The young man on the table looked away from the tome to spear him with an almost hurt expression. "Don't you recognize me, Giles?"

"Very well," Giles scowled walked up to the perimeter of the floating books and pointed at the sleeping Xander "Then who is that?"

The Xander sitting on the table looked at the sleeping one and shrugged. "That's me, too."

"Quite right," Giles glared at the being sitting on the table crossly. "Now can you explain how there could possibly be two of you?"

"I was getting tired while I was waiting for you to get back from Ethan's, nothing else to do here so I decided to try reading to keep myself awake…" Xander explained as he turned back to the tome in front of him "I really focused on what I reading 'cause I knew I had to keep reading or I would fall asleep; next thing I knew I was standing beside myself. So I took the book I had been reading from myself and read it. Then I read another and another and many more after that… then you came in."

"That's… are you trying to tell me that you're just a dream Xander's having about reading?" Giles asked in confusion, disbelief and no small amount of annoyance.

The Xander on the table stopped turning the tome's pages with a thoughtful expression, a moment later a look of understanding crossing his face. "Yes, I believe you're right, Giles."

"Oh good, dreams coming to life again, just what we bloody need on top off everything else that's happened this evening!" Giles massaged the bridge of his nose in frustration. "Right, I will just have to wake you up then…"

"I think I would appreciate that, I believe the sleeping me is starting to have my old nightmare about while I was possessed by the Hyena spirit again." Xander said his expression becoming distressed. "And I hate reliving what happened between me and Buffy, even if it's only a dream."

It took less than a second for Giles to start moving upon hearing what Xander was likely dreaming about, pushing his way through the floating books to grab the young man by the shoulder and give him a firm shake. "WAKE UP!"

Xander's eyes snapped open with a panicked expression and Giles found himself flung away from the young man by some invisible force, heading toward the far wall at a speed the human body was never meant to obtain outside of a vehicle only to come to a sudden stop in midair.

Giles slowly turned his head and gulped, finding the wall less than a foot from the back of his head before turning to look at Xander with wide eyes.

Xander shrugged with an apologetic expression and looked around the library sheepishly. Spotting himself sitting on the table reading, Xander blinked then his face went hard. "Sorry, Giles… I'll be right back!"

Giles stared at the place Xander had been standing with an expression of disbelief which quickly changed to one of frustrated anger. "WHAT THE BLOODY HELL IS GOING ON!"

The Xander still sitting on the table looked up from his reading with a confused expression. "Didn't I mention that I had become Omnipotent?"

"No, you did not… Dear Lord!" Giles cut off mid-shout, going pale as a sheet at what the young man had just said registered. "How, how did…?"

"Like many others, I turned into my costume as well last night… you might want to sit down." Xander said, pointed to the chair Xander had just left, as a pile of comics appeared on the table. "You could just read until I get back..."

"May I ask exactly what did you dress as?" Giles slowly moved over, took the seat indicated and reached for one of the tomes floating over his head, only to freeze at the frown Xander sent his way.

"I dressed as Adam Warlock…" Xander waved at the stack of comics, "you should read the comics. They will give you some idea of what you're dealing with."

"Surely, you could just explain it to me." Giles gave the pile of comics a look of distain. "Or is there a reason you wish to subject me to poor bastardized excuses for literature?"

"I suppose I could just download them into your mind when I get back, if you prefer." Xander shrugged without looking up from the tome in his lap. "Those comics are what I based my costume on… so reading them will help you understand what the other me is planning to explain to you after he gets back from skinning his dream of the hyena spirit that possessed us."

"Very well…" Giles picked up the first comic and opened it with a look of distaste, when his head snapped up to look at the reading Xander with an expression of surprised exasperation spreading across his face. "He's WHAT?"

"YOU'RE SO LUCKY THAT I'M NOT SURE IF KILLING YOU WOULD HURT ME!"

Giles jumped at the angry yell, and blinked as the doors to the library slammed open as something hurtled through them, hit the ground and tumbled almost the entire length of the library before crashing into the raised section at the back of the library. Giles studied the half sprawled form as it climbed to its feet; it was humanoid, lightly covered in brownish fur with a mottled pattern, and as it raised its head the watcher saw that it had Xander's face although the dazed expression looked slightly different due to the fangs peeking out over his bottom lip.

Giles felt a shiver run down his spine and prepared to make a run for it when the hyena-Xander spotted him and lunged; the next thing the Watcher knew the furred being had somehow managed to crawl completely under his chair, warp its arms around his legs and was making a truly pitiful whining yelping noise.

"And you had better be glad that I checked if you were evil…" Xander ranted as he half-led half-dragged a female demon of some sort into the library by the arm. Xander paused in his rant, staring at the Hyena-Xander cowering under the Watcher's chair as it attempted to hide behind his legs. "Oh, how pathetic can you get…?"

Giles frowned as Hyena- Xander appeared, still curled as it had been to fit under his chair, out of thin air at about eye level with Xander. Hyena-Xander let out with a terrified yelp as it fell, limbs flailing, followed by a pain-filled one as it landed on the library floor.

Xander kicked the prone form at his feet, reveling in the chance to hurt something that had caused him as much grief as the Hyena spirit had. The Hyena-Xander tried to scramble away, its claws leaving deep gouges as it tried to gain purchase on the smooth surface of the polished floor boards, succeeding only in dragging itself across the room in a blind attempt to get away.

Xander glanced at Giles as he reached out to grab the Hyena, only to freeze at the look of fear, disapproval and disappointment the Watcher was giving him.

Giles shook his head, turned his back on the young man and picked up the comic book again. "Good to see you're handling your new-found power in positive and responsible manner, Xander."

"Strange, that was sort of like watching one of the old father-son bonding sessions me and Pop used to have after a bottle of J.D..." The Xander sitting on the table commented.

Xander blanched under the Giles' subtle recrimination and was almost sick at the comparison to his father the version of him sitting on the table made. Locking the hyena in the book cage with just a thought so it couldn't escape, Xander walked over to his surrogate father-figure, a confusing mix of emotions warring within him. "Giles, that-that thing…"

"If that 'thing' is just a dream, it's a subconscious representation, built from your memories of when you were possessed by the Hyena." The Xander on the table glanced at Xander and held up a book on dream interpreting. "According to what I have read, recurring dreams about a traumatic event indicates unresolved issues about that event…"

Giles looked up from the comic he had been trying to read and frowned, looking between the Xander standing beside him and the one sitting on the table. "If you're a dream why are you still present if he's awake?"

"I don't know…" Xander stopped and gave Giles a look of disbelief. "What do you mean, dream? I've been wishing this had all been just a dream all night!"

D'Hoffryn looked at the vengeance demons just standing around in the great hall of his home doing nothing and frowned. "Well?"

"Well what, sir?" The nearest of the demons replied nervously

"Isn't somebody going to grant that wish?!" The demon lord growled in outrage.

"I don't think so; I don't remember any of us handling all-powerful beings, but your powers appear to be working just fine…" Anyanaka shook her head, she knew she was pushing it D'Hoffryn's favorite or not, but the demon lord wasn't known for recruiting fools and trying anything with someone with the power she feeling coming off of whoever had just made that wish was a fool's errand. "That is if you really want to be the one to risk stirring up that hornet's nest."

"Fine…!" The demon lord scowled as he shook his head and started for his office grumbling about disobedient servants, punishments and the improperness of being teased by the higher powers.

"Xander, do I really need to remind you not to voice such things…" Giles took off his glasses and began polishing them with a grim expression. "I would rather you not tempt the fates at the moment!"

"Sorry, Giles…" Xander fell in a chair and rubbed his eyes with tired expression. "I'm still tired and I'm beginning to wonder if becoming omnipotent somehow scrambled my brains…"

"Now there's a thought…" Giles blinked, stopped polishing his glasses and fixed Xander with a pointed look. "Xander if you've in someway become all-powerful as you claim, why can't you just make last night just a dream?"

"You mean other than the paradoxes it would create? First off, the Infinity gems and Gauntlet are indestructible. If I were to do something like make last night one big dream, they would more than likely continue to exist, only without our knowing they were real and needed protecting." Xander smirked at Giles' slight wince at the possibilities that brought to the Watcher's mind. "Secondly, if I was to do that the mostly likely outcome at the moment is that in five years, there will be an army of slayers, Buffy will be an insane control freak that believes you only matter if you have a power, Willow will be a power hungry black magic addict, you will be little more than an emasculated yes-man, I will have lost an eye and all of my morality, not to mention that the world would end about eight years from now… Oh, and did I mention that Angel would kill Ms. Calendar?"

"WHAT…?"

"I'm omnipotent, remember mastery of time and space kind of come with that…" Smirking at the wide-eyed expression of shock on the watchers face Xander shrugged. "And come on Giles its not like I'm going to say 'let there be light and…"

Xander blinked as seven glowing globes about the size of his fist appear floating in the air in front of him; slowly covering his face with the hand covered by the Infinity Gauntlet he shook his head and groaned. "Not one word; not one freaking word, G-man!"


End file.
